


It's What Family Does

by lovethecoat51



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Gen, general crew family feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-15
Updated: 2013-12-15
Packaged: 2018-01-04 17:58:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1083991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovethecoat51/pseuds/lovethecoat51
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>prompt from tumblr: McCoy has been working way too hard and its beginning to show - his friends try to help him out/cheer him up, and they may or may not succeed - up to you.</p><p>The two weeks Jim was in his coma were rough for Leonard, but looking back, it wasn't as rough as it could have been.</p><p>(McKirk if you squint)</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's What Family Does

The two weeks Jim was in his coma were rough for Leonard, but looking back, they weren't as rough as it could have been. 

Approximately two days after the serum had been injected into Jim, Leonard was still by his side. He couldn't let himself rest until he knew Jim wasn't going to flatline on him again. Yes, his vitals were holding steady - for now - but he couldn't be sure the serum was really working until Jim woke up. And who knew when that would happen. They needed to give his body time to heal, and given that he was currently undergoing radiation decontamination in addition to defrosting from his time in the cryotube, they had decided to put him into a coma. 

Leonard had never seen him so still. It was altogether unnerving. He'd seen Jim asleep many,  _many_  times before, but this... this was getting to be too much for him. And yet, he still refused to budge from his chair. Christ, he wasn't even Jim's attending physician right now, having been taken off the case the second they beamed back down to Earth. He thanked his lucky stars that Phil Boyce was the one who had taken over.

"Leonard?" Speaking of the devil, a silver-haired man stepped into the room. Dr. Boyce was a doctor that Leonard held the greatest amount of respect for. When they limped home after the incident with Nero, Boyce had been one of the doctors that had helped operate on Pike - in fact, he had been Pike's CMO for a majority of their careers, and Boyce loved to tease Leonard that in 20 years, Pike didn't get so much as a scar and the first time he was entrusted to Leonard, he came back nearly paralyzed.

That joke wasn't funny anymore.

"Don't mind me, Phil. I'll stay out of your way."

"You look like crap. How much sleep have you gotten?" Boyce stepped up to check Jim's vital, even though he was sure if anything had been off, Leonard would have called him immediately.

"None. And tonight's forecast isn't looking too well either. Did you need anything from me?"

"No, actually, there's someone here to see you."

Leonard craned his neck around to see who the hell could possibly want to see him. A bright-eyed, curly-haired Russian was standing there with an eager smile on his face. Leonard rolled his eyes but got up to greet him. 

"Came to see the captain?" he asked when they were out in the hall.

Chekov shook his head. "Ve had leftovers from dinner tonight, my mozher eensisted I bring some to our brave doctor."

The ensign shoved a container into Leonard's hands, and when he lifted the lid, the most heavenly smell of meat and onions and baked buns came wafting up. "Pierogi?"

Chekov looked scandalized by Leonard's guess. "Pirozhki, doctor! It's a wery old Russian recipe-"

But before he could regale Leonard with all the details, the doctor cut him off. "Thanks, kid, can't wait to try 'em. Tell your mother thank you for me."

That was how it started.

Over the next two weeks, not a day went by that one of the crew didn't stop by the hospital to check on him. They were subtle about it, or at least tried to be. Some succeeded more than others.

Sulu invited him to a soccer game, which was actually enormously fun and for a few hours, Leonard was able to forget all his worries and instead scream obscenities at some team he didn't care about and drink cheap beer and cheer on the rare occasion someone scored a goal. The fresh air did him a world of good too.

Scotty, of course, dragged him out to the bars whenever he got the chance, with Keenser in tow. He never took Leonard any place that was bright or loud, normally just a local bar with friendly patrons who were content to leave them alone. Leonard had never really interacted with the Royan outside of medbay, but listening to him and Scotty bicker (though was it really bickering when 95% of the conversation came from one person and the other person only spoke in one word responses?) had him nearly in stitches. Even if it did make him heart ache to bicker with Jim again, Scotty could pick a mighty fine bourbon and that helped to each the pain just a little. 

Even Spock showed up, informing him of the hospital's visiting policy, and because Leonard was neither the captain's attending physician nor, regrettably, family, the commander would be forced to have him removed from the building if he was caught there after hours. 

The greatest surprise was coming home from the hospital after Spock kicked him out to find Carol there, busily working away in his kitchen. He barked at her about privacy and security concerns, but she just rolled her eyes, scoffing that if she could fake orders getting her aboard Starfleet's flagship, did he really think his door code would be too difficult? Besides, Christine had given her a special cocktail for him that could be administered either as a drink or as a hypo that would ensure he'd sleep a full eight hours, and it was up to him as to how he got it. 

Uhura, bless her, took him to a salon. Having someone massage his scalp nearly put him to sleep, and while they were sitting for their manicures, Leonard asked her why they had adopted him as their pet project.

"Because we're just as stressed as you, Leonard," she replied patiently. "We all want to do something to help the captain, but we're not doctors. There's nothing we can do for him except sit and wait. But one thing we  _can_  do is take care of you while he can't. It's what family does."


End file.
